Following Jesus in Great Southern

Spies, Assassins and Secrets

This year has seen two big (and plenty of small) spy scandals. At present there is the murder by the Saudi government of a Saudi journalist in their embassy in Turkey by a large number of spies and assassins. Then there was the Russian murder of an ex-Russian spy in England by a much smaller team of spies. There has been the arrest of a Chinese spy in Europe, and plans to extradite them to the US for trial. And there have been numerous cases of private spying – where it has been revealed the social media companies have been hiding the extent of their tracking and spying on people – to outrage and condemnation.

And all of it was meant to be secret. Hidden. Kept out of view.

Not all secrets are meant to hide something bad. We all know and understand how to keep something confidential for the sake of others – so that they aren’t embarrassed or exposed. But the sort of actions we see in the news aren’t like that. They were meant to be secret to protect the people, companies or governments doing the wrong thing and being held accountable.

Which is what we all do with our sin. We hide our sin to prevent our embarrassment, and to prevent ourselves from being held accountable or shamed for our action. We present a better image of ourselves to others so they won’t treat us the way we deserve to be treated.

We forget that all our deeds will be exposed, and none of our deeds are hidden from God. And just like the Saudis are currently feeling the consequences of the exposure of our sin, it will happen to us all.

If we are lucky, it will happen sooner rather than later, so we are forced to confront our own failings and sinfulness, and be forced to deal with it. The longer we hide our sin, the more we convince ourselves we don’t need to deal with it.

And the only way to truly deal with sin is to have it taken away from us. Sure, we can change behaviour with a bit of self-discipline and will-power. But that only masks our sin in a different way, it doesn’t deal with it. Our hearts need to be changed, and its only the risen Christ who can make that change.

If you are busy hiding things in your life, know that it will go as badly for you as it is for the Saudis, for Facebook, for everyone and everything who has ever been exposed in wrong-doing. You are no exception. And knowing that, turn to the only one who can affectively deal with you in a way that will transform your life: Jesus.